september open garden tour: a giant botanical birdfeeder

I WASN’T CERTAIN everyone else would share my enthusiasm about what really amounts to a giant birdfeeder: grasses and forbs setting seed; hollies, aralias and viburnum fruiting up; the last migrating hummingbirds dive-bombing the self-sown Nicotiana. But I opened the garden anyhow one more time, on September 20, and I’m glad I did. A slideshow of highlights.

For a Garden Conservancy Open Day here, it was relatively sane and quiet: just 175ish guests, and no lectures or workshops on the agenda, the way there usually are. Just the garden, and the plant sale by Broken Arrow Nursery–our fourth time this season together.

Visitors, and many bumblebees and other pollinators looking for a late-season meal, were attracted to easy-to-grow ‘September Charm’ anemone, which has been in bloom for at least six weeks already.

My houseplants, including various bromeliads and many large fancy-leaf begonias, will soon head indoors for winter, with colder nights approaching.

Even though relatively few leaves have their fall pigments on display yet, there is always plenty of gold at my place, from my favorite gold foliage plants, and now from gold fruit of yellow winterberry holly (Ilex verticillata ‘Chrysocarpa’) and Viburnum dilatatum ‘Michael Dodge.’

Have a further look around:

the slideshow from sept. 20

MOVE FROM SLIDE TO SLIDE by hovering your cursor over the middle of the right side of an image, then click to advance.

comments

My eye went right to the birdbath planted with greenery. It looks like an obelisk sitting in it. What a nice focal point.

In order to procure a birdbath basin in which to plant, I bought a new one for my Dad then usurped his leaky one. I sat my birdbath on a wide, freshly cut tree stump to disguise it, then added stones and soil and masses of Sempervivums. I double-checked that water would drain away freely. It gets a lot of comments from visitors.

Thank you Margaret, your garden is absolutely beautiful. So glad that you’re so generous with the pics and commentary. I am slowly working my way through 3/4 of an acre of neglected garden that needs clearing and planting. Your photos and narrative have been inspiring and although I am in a somewhat colder zone, I have managed to integrate a lot of ‘your’ plants into ‘my’ garden. Thanks again! Mika

Lovely to see your garden in the fall!! This week, I spent 2 hours each early evening, after my full time job, and 6 hours today (Sunday), weeding in the back area of my property. Nice to see the results. Still lots to tame though!

So kind of you to add one more opportunity to have visitors enjoy your beautiful property. The berries are luscious looking to us humans as well as to your feathered friends. Thank you for sharing a lovely September day!

Oh Margaret, the snakes! How lucky to have them and see them. I also loved seeing a photo of the Korean maple after hearing you speak of it on the radio show. You provide lots of inspiration auditorily and visually. Is auditorily a word? You know what I mean…

Thank you! That was simply a “gift”. This is my favorite time of year when the light is lower and highlights leaf color. Even fading things have charm. The hummers are tanking up as are the monarchs… one more week to enjoy them. There really are advantages to living in a “birdfeeder” and taking the time to observe and appreciate.

Incredible! And so timely as I’ve decided to garden for birds and pollinators. This is inspirational! I have a question that I’ve long been meaning to ask you. How do you keep your tubs of water with the beautiful green growth from being mosquito hatcheries? (And what is the green stuff?)

Here’s the info on the tough gardens, Alexa. I don’t have a mosquito problem probably because in my large, longtime, diverse organic garden I am overrun by birds, dragonflies, frogs, and everyone else who likes to eat bugs!

I really must visit in person one day soon. I love all the berries – all in such perfect scale! My winterberries are smaller and now concealed by tall perennials – I hope that one day they balance out. Really must add that Spikenard! So beautiful. And your containers are really lovely. And snakes? I remember reading your book and your fear of snakes – how gracious of you to let them live on your terrace – talk about facing your fears. I am bringing your Backyard Parables to our master gardeners meeting tomorrow – we are going to share books.

Can I ask how you keep your pots of water (e.g in the shot of the begonias) from becoming mosquito breeding grounds? Do you add anything to the water to thwart them? I’d love to do this but I’m afraid to be overrun with mozzies. Thanks so much

Great to see the slide show with the names of plants and shrubs shown. I missed this year’s Open Days but thoroughly enjoyed this post, and also the video of the “Growing a Greener World” gardening show.

Thank you for this opportunity to view what was not possible this year in person.

I’d love to know more ways to use what’s already in the woods, under foot in the fields, at the bank of the stream as natural “tools”, like using a hollowed out stump as the pedestal for a bird bath, using pebbles, earth and plantings around the bowl.

Is there a book of such natural ideas for beauty as well as for preservation of the environment and avoiding garden products….?

We had the opportunity to visit — definitely worth the trip! The landscape was beautiful and gave us ideas to try (although on a much smaller scale). We are looking forward to returning in a different season. Margaret, thank you for sharing your garden!!

Margaret, My friend and I were finally able to visit your lovely garden, traveling from Milford, NH. Well worth the trip. You are a gracious hostess and generous to open your garden yet again this year. Thank you for for producing the slide show because there were so many plants, particularly shrubs, that we were not able to identify! The hummingbirds were riotous but I’m not sorry I missed the snakes, ha ha. We had lunch at “The Farmer’s Wife” , only a short but breath-taking ride from you. It was simply delicious, and then we went on to the other gardens open through The Garden Conservancy. It was a positively wonderful day. Oh, and thank you for sharing your books… We both came home with several to inspire us during the restful winter months.

How nice of you to write, Marie, and I am glad you enjoyed your visit. Because it was about half the number of visitors of a spring or summer Open Day, I was able to really talk to people — which was wonderful for me, too. Hope to see you in spring — another fun time.

From the Podcast: Doug Tallamy’s ‘Nature’s Best Hope’

“Nature’s Best Hope” is the title of University of Delaware professor Doug Tallamy’s newest book, and the subtitle reads like this: “A New Approach to Conservation That Starts in Your Yard.” In other words, you and I are nature’s best hope. Our actions count, and they add up to counteract a fragmented landscape and other challenges to the survival of so many critically important native creatures and the greater environment we all share. (Stream our conversation below, read the illustrated transcript or subscribe free.)